May The Fates Turn the Wheel: The Lightning Thief
by L. Lawliet-Rue Ryuzaki
Summary: Turn the Wheel of fate. Set the Time back. Change your very future. To the Gods. Percy's in ancient Greece, but there's been a few changes to his life. For instance, instead of dating a daughter of Athena there's a certain Ex- Huntress in his life.
1. Prologue

**Hey, I think this is the first Percy/Zoë fanfic about reading PJO. I think. Just tell me if I am wrong. But can any of you tell me how to do the line thingy? Thanks. Oh and Zoë obviously is alive. It will be changed in the story that I will write. So just be patient.**

**Zoë POV**

I walked onwards to the lake, bored out of my mind. Campers had been flirting with me. They all walked off with a bloody nose. Ever since Percy was gone… My lips trembled at the thought. My name is Zoë Nightshade. Daughter of Atlas, ex-lieutenant of Artemis, and girlfriend of Percy Jackson. Yeah, I got off the man hating. A bright flash enveloped me. I stood up and brushed off my pants.

Suddenly, Thalia appeared out of nowhere and fell on me.

"Thalia! Get off me!" Thalia instantly rolled off me and we both got up. To our surprise, Zeus stood in front of us holding up his master bolt.

"WHO DARES INTERRUPT US?" Zeus shouted. Ouch. "Father, put your bolt down. That is my lieutenant. Also, who is the other?" I turned around, and to my shock I saw next to Artemis's throne… Me. But where was Thalia? And the only time I was invited to Olympus was the old ages in ancient Greece. Wait a minute… Ancient Greece. Ahh.

"Thalia, we are in the past."

"Well, I am-" With that, more bright flashes entered into the room. "Where are we?" Annabeth, Travis, Connor, Katie, Clarisse, Nico, Jason and Chiron got up, unsteady on their feet. So they get transported on their feet, but we don't? Unfair. I turned back to face the gods. Thalia opened her mouth again. "I am Thalia Grace, lieutenant of Artemis, daughter of Zeus." All Zeus could do was flap his mouth open and close, looking like a goldfish.

"Well, if you just wait, I'll explain it later." Thalia smirked.

"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena and architect of Olympus." Athena smiled.

"Travis," "And Connor," "The sons of Hermes and troublemakers extraordinaire!" Hermes beamed.

"Katie, daughter of Demeter." Demeter looked at her sternly. "Do you eat enough cereal?" Demeter asked. "Ummm… Yes?" Katie answered.

"Clarisse, daughter of Ares." Ares just stared.

"Nico, son of Hades and Ghost king." Hades's eyes widened at him.

"Jason, son of Jupiter." Every god looked at him, stunned. "Whose Jupiter?"

"Jupiter is your roman form, the greeks get defeated and are enemies."

"Why are you with the greeks then?"

"Hera had another of her meddling games." Zeus glanced at Hera.

"Why are we here?"

A bright flash appeared, and a book with a note materialized out of nowhere. I reached out and grabbed it. Poseidon leaned forward. "What does it say?"

"Percy Jackson-" At this I had to stifle a laugh. My boyfriend has a book about him? "And The Lightning Thief. The note says:

_Hello, read these books please. You will not change anything, or else. The fates._"

"Who is this Peter Johnson?" Mr. D asked. "That's what I'm wondering." Three more flashes illuminated the room, and there was my boyfriend, standing with two people beside him. I instantly ran up to him, tears welling in my eyes, wrapped him in a tight embrace, and kissed him. Everyone looked at me stunned, including myself, and Artemis stood up. "_Boy_, get away from my hunter."

"Ummm… Zoë, why is Artemis angry with us? Especially since you're no longer in the hunt? And why are you there… and here… and there…" He looked at all of us, confusion evident on his face. "She's not my huntress anymore? Impossible. Step away from her." He glanced at me, and stepped forward.

"I swear on the Styx I am telling the truth." Thunder rumbled in the distance. Artemis stumbled back. "After all, I did save her life."

Artemis's mouth flopped open and she sat back down. Percy smiled and gestured towards his friends. "That's Frank, son of Mars and Hazel, daughter of Pluto. And before you rant, Zeus, he didn't break the oath. Which was already gone. Guys, meet my friends Annabeth, Travis, Connor, Katie, Clarisse, Nico, and Chiron."

"Hey, that's Jason! We missed you so much! Reyna has been worried out of her mind!" Hazel exclaimed. Jason shifted uncomfortably and glanced at the floor.

"And who are you?" Athena asked. "Who do you think, Athena? Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, slayer of monsters I won't bother to mention, defeater of Ares, Polyphemus, Atlas, Hyperion, Hades, and Kronos. But I had help on those guys. Oh and Saviour of Olympus." Everyone stared at him. "Well, the fates told me what is happening. Read the books and stuff like that. Ok…"

Everyone got out of their stupor and grumbled. Hestia waved her hand and a huge couch appeared. The demigods all sat down, while I sat on Percy's lap. "I will." Athena grabbed the book.

"**I accidentally vaporize my Maths teacher."**

**Well, how did you like that? REVIEW and tell me if I should continue. PEACE OUT!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Yo. I am back. Why so little reviews? Me so sad…**

**3****rd**** POV**

**I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY MATHS TEACHER**

Athena frowned. "He sounds so wimpy." Jason snorted. Truth be told, he was actually quite jealous of Percy.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Who does? I mean, you do get either mauled, burned, tortured or killed. Not a fun life." Percy stated. All the demigods agreed, making the gods and Zoë pale.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. **

"Advice? From Percy? You have changed from when thee was a child." Zoë chuckled, making Percy pout at her.

**Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"Good advice, Perce." Annabeth nodded in agreement.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"I can't believe you actually have a brain in there, Prissy." Clarisse laughed.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think its fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

"Don't we all." Nico yawned, already bored.

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

Every demigod nodded at this. They all had monsters coming after them.

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't warn me, Perce. The amazing Nico!" Nico mock-glared at him. "Give me a break. There was a monster there." Percy whined. Zoë remembered that day when she met her love.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"No, you're Hercules. Give me a break. Why don't you try to follow in his footsteps? Oh, I know. You're not powerful enough." Jason sneered. No one noticed the tear falling down both Zoë's face except for Percy. His eyes looked murderous. "I choose not to follow in Heracles path, Jason, as he was a jerk. If you even know what he did…" Percy looked up comforting Zoë. "And what exactly did he do."

Percy looked at Zoë, who nodded giving Percy permission. "Let's just say if I did follow him, I would not have a girlfriend like Zoë."

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

"Does that include you?" Nico smirked.

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Definitely." Thalia grinned. Percy glared at her, placing a hand on Zoë's back, muttering soothing words to her. Zoë gave him an appreciative smile. Suddenly the past Zoë disappeared, and a note appeared in Percy's hands. "The note says, 'Due to complications, we have made the past Zoë be absorbed into the future Zoë. The fates.' Okay…"

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"And Percy agrees!" Travis yelled.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff. **

"Hey, that sounds interesting!" Athena smiled and bounced up and down like a little kindergartener handed a lollipop.

**I know—it sounds like torture. **

"HEY!" Athena ended her little kindergartener session and did her worst glare at Percy.

**Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

"It's nice to know how Percy thinks so high of me." Chiron said, a faint smile on his face.

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, **

"I take that back." Chiron frowned, while the rest of the campers started sniggering. "Hey! I don't think that!"

**But he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. **

"YOU DID WHAT NOW!" Annabeth yelled. "I'm okay with it, as long as they had cereal." Demeter said. Everyone stared at her weirdly.

**He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"You slept in class? I like this kid." Apollo chuckled.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

"For once? You got in trouble before?" Poseidon questioned.

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. **

"Really? I hadn't noticed." Thalia rolled her eyes.

**Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. **

"Your kid is AWESOME, Uncle P." Hermes exclaimed.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. **

The group laughed. Apollo wiped fake tears from his eyes.

**And the time before that... Well, you get the idea. This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"Percy attempting to be good? A first." Connor grinned.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Ewww." Aphrodite pretended to throw up.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. **

"He thinks soooo well of his best friend." Nico drawled.

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Way to blow your cover, goat boy!" Thalia roared with laughter.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. **

Pretty much everyone was glaring at the book.

**The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Mildly entertaining?" Chiron grumbled, raising an eyebrow.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Please do!" Ares begged.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"Why, Grover!" Ares sobbed. Aphrodite leaned back from him, staring at him as if he dropped from outer space.

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. "That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

Ares started sobbing more.

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. **

"Yeah!" Apollo grunted. "Boys." Zoë rolled her eyes. Percy smiled and kissed her.

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"Wait, what!" Poseidon started hyperventilating.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Ummm… Kelp head, you do realize that it survived longer?" Thalia frowned.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"Who is Mrs. Dodds?" Hades asked. "Oh, nothing, though you know her personally." Percy hummed happily.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"She sounds re- Oh gods, Her?" Hades visibly paled. "Yu-up!" Percy sang.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"We need to teach Grover how to maintain his cover." Travis said, everyone agreeing.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

"You tell her, Prissy!" Clarisse yelled. Percy snickered, remembering how he compared Nancy to Clarisse.

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"When does it not?" Hestia pointed out. Everyone except Percy jumped. They had all forgotten she was there.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"Why, Chiron! Why must you get my son in trouble!" Poseidon wailed.

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

"Yes. Boring." Percy said.

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"Chiron, why that oneeee?" Zeus whined.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because..." "Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—" **

"God?" Chiron asked.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"Creepy on so many levels." Percy shivered.

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

"Terrible father. Never gave us cereal once." Demeter grumbled. "Oh shut it, woman." Hades said.

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"—And so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"That's my Percy. Summarizing centuries of fighting in one sentence." Zoë smiled.

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "To paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted," Travis muttered.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

"Oh no, you've got Grover-itis!" Connor yelped.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

"I thought that was impossible." Percy laughed.

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Horse ears! He always catches our plans…" Travis shivered.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"You don't!" Annabeth yelled. "Yes, I didn't know about demigods. So?" Percy replied.

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"Happy note? Dear gods, what was I thinking?" Chiron muttered.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doo-fuses.**

"Since when do they not?" Zoë asked. Percy pouted at her.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson." I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

"What if he was a monster, son!" Poseidon yelped. "I take offence in that!" Chiron yelled.

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. **

"More." Chiron corrected. "Once a teacher, always a teacher." Percy grumbled. Chiron laughed, making everyone look strangely at him.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me. "About the Titans?" "About real life. And how your studies apply to it." "Oh."**

"Nice answer, Percy." Travis laughed.

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry; this guy pushed me so hard.**

"And because of that, I'm alive!"

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman per-son who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. **

"Harsh." Hephaestus grumbled.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"You were so stupid back then, Percy." Zoë smiled. Everyone stared. "What?" Zoë frowned. "Y-you just said you!" Apollo stuttered. "Well, Percy taught me to speak modern... Which reminds me, how can you speak english?"

Apollo smiled and said, "Well, sweetheart, the fates must have willed it so." Percy took out his dagger and threw it at him. "Don't flirt with her!"

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"I did." Chiron looked down sadly.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch. The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snowstorms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"Why is Zeus so angry?" Athena asked.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. **

"Those poor pigeons!" Aphrodite shrieked. "Boys." Artemis muttered. "You weren't thinking that when you had a crush on Percy!" Zoë laughed.

**Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

Poseidon growled. Those around him inched away slowly.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"You are not a loser freak!" Zoë cried. Percy just smiled and put an arm around Zoë.

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"Nope!" Everyone chorused, including Zoë. Percy looked around. "What is this, pick on Percy day?"

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

Everyone burst into laughter. "That's goat boy!" Annabeth giggled.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

"Awww." All the goddess's cooed. Percy blushed.

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. **

"Mama's boy!" Clarisse yelled. Everyone who had met Sally just rolled their eyes at Clarisse's statement.

**She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Awww." Aphrodite sighed.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"Nice description of me, Percy." Percy squirmed, clearly uncomfortable.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

Thalia, Annabeth and Nico hissed and glared at the books.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Please keep your descriptions to yourself, Percy." Zoë smiled.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"Cue- Amazing water powers of the awesome god Poseidon!" Poseidon beamed.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—" "—the water—" "—like it grabbed her—" I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

"We water benders are awesome." Percy stated. Zoë giggled, she remembered that silly movie where real monsters attacked them. Other people thought that apparently, 'the 3-D effects were really good.'

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

"What's up with the Honey thing? She never called me that." Nico said. "Oooh, maybe she has a crush on Percy!" Aphrodite squealed. Instantly, Percy dived for the edge of Olympus retching while Zoë glared at Aphrodite.

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks." **

"No! Never guess your punishment! It's one of the rules!" Hermes yelled. "Sooo, you have rules for breaking rules." Athena said skeptically. "Yesss…" Hermes said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

**That wasn't the right thing to say. "Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said. "Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her." I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. **

**Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"That's our goat boy." Thalia smiled.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled. "I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said. "But—" "You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately. "It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying." "Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

"There's the honey thing again. I'll never get Alect-" Nico gulped. "Alect? Who's that?" Poseidon asked.

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. **

Ares almost chuckled, when he saw the scared look on the other demigod's faces. "Why are you wimps so scared?" "Well, Kelp head here already had quite a stare, but when Zoë started dating him…" Nico paled a bit more. "Even Lupa was scared." Percy chuckled. "Phh. Exaggerations. It can't be that bad. He's just a wimp." Ares sneered. Percy turned to give him his worst glare. Ares flinched. Percy smiled evilly at Ares and kissed Zoë on her forehead.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. How'd she get there so fast?**

"Definitely a monster. Maybe I'll get lucky and he gets mauled." Mr. D smirked. Suddenly, he found a silver bow pointed at his throat, a certain hunter behind it. Mr. D gulped.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"That's not true!" Thalia protested.

**I wasn't so sure.**

"Even Percy agrees!" She continued.

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"Chiron, why?" Chiron looked up from a book. "What?" He asked, obviously confused.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

"Oh gods. Oh gods." Poseidon tried to breathe.

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

"I thought your first monster was the Minotaur!" Zoë yelled. Percy held his hands up in the air, surrendering.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said. I did the safe thing. **

"Safe? When has Percy ever been safe?" Travis laughed. Poseidon paled even further.

**I said, "Yes, ma'am." She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?" The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"Wro-ong!" Hades and Nico chorused. Everyone stared at them.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am." Thunder shook the building. "We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

"Confess? What is she talking about? And suffer less pain?" Poseidon asked.

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"Because you're a seaweed brain!" Annabeth yelled. Percy stuck his tongue out at her.

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"You're kid's a riot!" Hermes laughed.

**"Well?" she demanded. "Ma'am, I don't..." "Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"A fury! You sent Alecto after my son!" Poseidon pointed his trident at Hades.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

"What ho? Amazing." Ares muttered.

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"I love that sword." Percy smiled.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword. **

"Wimp!" Ares yelled.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!" And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss! Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. **

"What a weird thought. He's such a loser." Jason hissed. Everyone tried to ignore him. Frank and Hazel looked at each other surprised. Was Jason such a jerk?

**She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Magic mushrooms?" Connor pointed out.

**Had I imagined the whole thing? I went back outside. It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Poseidon asked.

**I said, "Who?"**

Athena laughed. "Like father like son."

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Worst liar ever." Hermes grumbled.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

"What?" Hazel asked. "I thought it was a sword?"

Annabeth laughed. "Yeah, but Chiron was trying to keep his cover."

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it. "Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?" He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As **

**far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Ahh. There's the end." Athena said.

"I think we should continue, then eat lunch." Hera said.

"Father, you read." Athena passed the book to Zeus. He looked downright murderous.

"**Three old ladies knit the socks of death.**"

**Ok, you like that? Review.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Well, here you go.**

**3****rd**** POV**

**THREE OLD LADIES KNIT ****THE SOCKS OF DEATH**

"What?" Zoë said, obviously confused. "I thought you said nothing happened before the Minotaur? The fury was bad enough…" Percy stiffened and refused to meet her eyes. He hadn't even told anyone about the curse.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. **

"Just like my first year of school." Percy said, avoiding the question. "I couldn't believe no one saw the basilisk passing by." Everyone stared. How was this boy still alive?

**The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"The mist." Annabeth shook her head.

"What's the mist?" Hazel asked.

"It's something that blocks mortals from seeing monsters." Annabeth replied.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"You are psycho." Nico laughed, and Thalia chortled.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

"That's good. Keep the monsters off your scent." Hera nodded, shocking a few demigods.

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me. **

"Note to self. Teach Grover how to lie." Travis muttered.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum. I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"Why. Why. Why." Poseidon slammed his head onto the armrest of his throne.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year. **

"Why am I so angry?" Zeus asked. The demigods looked at each other before shaking their heads, indicating they wouldn't say.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. **

Athena and Annabeth glared at Percy. He gulped, and hid his face behind Zoë's hair. Zoë blushed and smiled faintly.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

Athena glared even more, increasing her eye size magically.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. **

"That's quite a good comeback, Kelp head. I'm surprised you're smart enough to know what that means." Thalia nodded her head in approval.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"I take that back." Thalia snorted.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"As I said, mama's boy." Clarisse snorted.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"Awww." The goddesses cooed.

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"I don't know why either. Maybe it had something to do with Alecto coming after you." Nico rolled his eyes.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology**_** across my dorm room. **

"Hey!" Athena yelled.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, **

"I am nothing like that man!" Chiron neighed in denial. **(A/N: Neigh sounds like Nay. That means no in some other language. I'm just laughing my head off here.)**

**Or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt. I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**_

"And I did prove him that I can be the best. At canoe racing." Percy smiled.

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

Annabeth nodded her approval. Athena was still mad at him.

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Thank you Percy for trying." Chiron beamed.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said"... worried about Percy, sir."****I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"Yeah, go Percy!" Hermes cheered. Chiron frowned. Percy had not told him he overheard.

**I inched closer. "... Alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—" "We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"I was already mature, Chiron!" Percy protested.

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead-line—"**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her..."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

Realization struck Zeus. "YOU MEAN THAT SATYR THAT LET MY DAUGHTER DIE IS STILL A PROTECTOR!"

"Father, I chose my fate. Grover is not to blame." Thalia said softly.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

"Next fall?" Poseidon paled more, which everyone thought was impossible.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

"Percy, why! How could you be so clumsy!" Hermes cried.

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"Chiron, where you about to shoot my son?" Poseidon boomed. Chiron whistled innocently.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

"Animal? I'll have you know I'm better than those no-brains!" Chiron ranted. Annabeth just covered his mouth. "Zeus, continue!"

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"What happened?" Hades asked.

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn..." "Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

"You too Grover? Percy must have influenced you…" Annabeth moaned. Percy stuck his tongue out at her.

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

"Satyr's can read your emotions." Dionysus stated. Everybody gaped at him. "You were actually paying attention?" Hephaestus asked in disbelief. Dionysus rolled his eyes, summoned a wine magazine and started reading it.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"And he finally gets it." Connor said.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

"Then what is?" Poseidon cried. "Well, if you let me continue, brother…"

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

Zoë glared at the book. Percy noticed and kissed her neck. She turned around, hand reaching for her dagger when she realized who kissed her. She smiled at Percy and turned back.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"Ha. The thoughts of a loser." Jason sneered, and Percy turned his eyes to him. "Do you have a problem?"

"What do you mean." Jason glared.

"You've been insulting me ever since I arrived. Why?"

"Why do you think? You're stealing all my friends, my fame!"

"I don't mean to. Instead of insulting me, you should build on your own rep with your own deeds."

Jason blinked, and realized what a jerk he had been. "Sorry." He mumbled, and Percy gave him a nod.

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

"I meant to say something else, Percy." Percy gave him a smile of appreciation.

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me. "Percy—" But I was already gone. On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

"Hey! Repeat after me: _I will treat clothes with respect._" Aphrodite glared. "I will trea- Hey wait a minute! Stop trying to charmspeak me! Mitchell taught me how to resist that!"

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

Zeus huffed. "Family of nobodies?" Percy gave him an apologetic smile.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

Zoë glared at the book. Boy's could be so immature sometimes.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Percy, you can't even keep a secret?" Hermes glared.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

"Oh sure. Not much." Thalia smirked.

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers..."**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and…"**

"Grover is a really, really, bad liar." Nico grumbled.

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"Nooo, I've caught 'the Percy'!" Nico yelped.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood **

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill Long Island, **

**New York (800) 009-0009**

"Fancy script?" Hestia glared pointedly at Dionysus. He shrugged. "It's fun to see them try to read it."

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion." He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me." "Why would I need you?" **

"Percy!" Every person yelled.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

"See? I was sorry!" Percy yelled back.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him. All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me. **

"Awww." Aphrodite gave Percy a sly smile. Percy just raised an eyebrow and looked away.

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?" There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. **

"Ewww. Please, Percy, think less vividly." Zoë groaned.

**The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

"Limped the Greyhound?" Nico raised an eyebrow.

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. **

"How can you be thinking that? Your life is in danger!" Nico yelled, knowing what happened.

**There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue and also another sea-green yarn.**

"Oh gods, that isn't who I think it is." Zoë paled.

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"No. Please tell me it wasn't." Zoë started to tear up. Percy could only shake his head, and put an arm around Zoë.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long bladed, like shears. **

"No. I can't believe it. How are you still alive?" Poseidon asked.

**I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on." "What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there." "Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. They held up two fingers, and the middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. **

"No." Zoë gasped, her tears flowing freely now. "It's okay, it's already done. The string has been destroyed. The fates no longer control my life." Percy smiled, and everyone stared at him.

**I felt a pain in my heart, and coughed out a bit of blood. I stared at the puddle, and looked back. **

Suddenly Percy stiffened, clutched his heart and retched out blood on the floor. _The curse acts fast_… Everyone stared. "Sorry, I just felt unwell back then.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue and Pale-green socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"Not even funny, dude." Travis whispered mournfully.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

"Now. It has to be right after." Poseidon whimpered, blinking back tears.

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!" Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering. "Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

"A lot." Connor tried to laugh, but couldn't.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"No, Peter. Much, much, worse." Dionysus said softly, surprising everyone.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?" "Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth." **

"That's sure to scare him." Chiron shook his head.

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?" "Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me." This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could. "Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked. No answer. "Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?" He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"He was." Thalia could only laugh, then choke.

"Seriously, guys, I am alive now right?" Percy snorted.

"I suggest we take lunch." Hestia suggested, and no one protested. They all filed out of the room, solemnly except for Percy. He chuckled, and stared at the bloody puddle. "Damn you, Phineas. Damn you. I want to enjoy my time with Zoë, but because of your stupid curse…"

"Percy? What was that about a curse?" Percy whirled around. Thank the gods. Only Zoë.

"Nothing, my love. Let's go." He gave Zoë a passionate kiss and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Ummm… Perce? Lunch?" Nico interrupted them. Percy glared daggers at him. Nico gulped and raced off. Percy grabbed Zoë's arm and sprinted off.

**All rights of the curse go to werewolves1999, who messaged me to do this. I thank her for the idea. And where art thou reviews? I need more to go on!**


	4. Chapter 3

**Ok, I am back. I thank everyone for his or her support. Because I CAN. And remember, all rights of the curse goes to werewolves1999. But I came up with the part about Phineas. I am so evil. She came up with the effects of the curse. So say a thank you to her. And mostly (Unless I say so) 3****rd**** Pov.**

Three more bright flashes, and Grover, Piper and Leo stumbled forward into the lunchroom.

"Where in the Hades are we?" Piper demanded.

"You are in 2000. Olympus. We are here to read Percy's adventures." Zoë snickered.

"Oh. Right." Leo scratched his head. "Well, you're beautiful."

Suddenly, Percy appeared right in front of him. "What was that, Leo? The fates filled me in as soon as I came here. I know who you are. I know what you're like. Did. You. Just. Call. My. Girlfriend. Beautiful." Percy hissed. Leo paled. "Sorry, bro, I didn't know."

To his surprise, Percy laughed. "Aw, I was just kidding. Zoë will do her worst if she wants to. I don't control her life." Leo broke into a grin; the hero was a fun-loving guy after all. But what he saw melted the smile off his face immediately. Zoë was glaring at him, fingering her dagger.

"So, like some lunch?" Percy gestured to the food.

"Nah, we just ate. Maybe we'll go into the throne room and read the chapters you completed." Piper grabbed Leo by the arm and dragged him off.

Percy and Zoë sat down along with the others. "Apples." A huge plate of apples appeared of Zoë.

"Zoë, you promised! Chicken wings and pizza." Percy smiled as he saw the food.

"What are you talking about?" Hera asked.

"Well, Zoë has this huge obsession with apples. She just can't stop eating them. Last time I tried to pry the apples away…" Everyone stared at Zoë, who was slowly taking a bite out of an apple. "Oh gods. Now I'm dead." Zoë instantly started to devour the apples. Percy rolled his eyes and started eating.

"Ummm… Percy, I'm sorry about being a jerk earlier." Jason apologized.

"It's okay, I would have done the same thing." Percy smiled. "Now please don't leave me alone with Zoë later to take the apples away."

"Percy, you told me you wouldn't!" Zoë pouted at him. Percy instantly paled and looked away.

"Don't look at the pout. Don't look at th- Damn." Percy glanced at her and facepalmed.

The gods laughed at their antics. Lunch was instantly eaten, jokes being told, and the ending entertainment of Percy trying to pry the plate away from Zoë who kept refilling it, getting threatened and almost skewered with a silver dagger and shot in the butt many times. The gods walked into the throne room, seeing Piper arguing with Leo. The book lay sprawled on the ground. Poseidon picked up the book and sat down, clearing his throat. Every person in the throne room sat down, Zoë glaring at Percy for taking her apples. Introductions were made, and Leo started reading. They didn't know who was supposed to read; they forgot when Zoë tried to gut Percy like a fish. **(A/N: Pun intented.)**

**GROVER UNEXPECTEDLY LOSES HIS PANTS**

"What?" Leo asked. No one but Frank saw Hazel gaze at him. Frank's eyes flashed with jealousy.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"How could you?" Thalia stared at Percy. "Hey! He was scaring me!"

**I know, I know. It was rude. **

"See?"

**But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"**

"Now, tell me that you wouldn't be freaked out, especially if you've only got two years to live!" Everyone stared at him, shocked. How was he alive?

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. **

"No, I was contacting Chiron!" Grover glared at Percy.

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. **

Poseidon frowned. He still loved her, and it pained him to see her suffer so much.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. **

Poseidon and Percy glared at Zeus.

**She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad. I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. **

"You do remember." Poseidon smiled, and Percy nodded his head. Zeus was about to explode at him.

"YOU VISITED YOUR SON!" Zeus shouted.

"Of course, Zeus. There's no law about visiting him, is there." Poseidon asked.

"You got pwned, little bro." Hades snickered.

**My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures. See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret.**

**Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"Nice! Telling a half lie instead of lying! I like your taste, uncle P." Hermes grinned.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his****true colors as a world-class jerk. **

Poseidon growled. It was bad enough that she suffered, but with Smelly Gabe…

**When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

All the people almost threw up, their faces turning green.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

"This man is truly a pig." Artemis snorted.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

Yells of protest instantly filled the room. No one liked Smelly Gabe.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"What! Percy, did he hit you?" Poseidon yelled. Percy refused to meet anyone's eyes. Zoë looked at him, concerned. "Percy, did he?" Zoë asked. Percy's eyes softened and he nodded. "Yes." The word came out, barely a whisper. The effect was instantaneous. The throne room echoed with a yell of anger from Poseidon, grabbing his trident. Thalia started sparking all over, the nearest to her getting shocked. Grover looked downright murderous, and Nico had skeletons erupting from the ground at random. Zoë's hand was twitching towards her bow. "Relax, I'm fine now!" Percy pleaded.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

"I can't believe his nerve!" Zoë threw her hands up into the air.

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"At least he's better." Apollo snorted.

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

"Brain boy?" Nico asked. "I think it was sarcasm. Didn't think he had enough brain for that." Percy frowned.

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

Many people were already green, if not some covering their mouths and swallowing frantically.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"That bad?" Leo asked. Jason couldn't believe the hero was so mistreated at first.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

"Awww. That's so sweet! Why can't you boys be like that?" Hera frowned, asking Hephaestus and Ares. "When you start being a proper mother." Hephaestus grumbled.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"She's awesome!" Apollo and Hermes yelled.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

"Of course. It's not like boy's will ever admit that." Artemis snorted.

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"No! No lying to your mother!" Hermes scolded, surprising everyone.

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"Not to her." Thalia said.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me. "I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach." My eyes widened. "Montauk?" "Three nights—same cabin."**

"Why do you love that beach so much?" Leo asked.

"Well, it's how I met Percy's mother." Poseidon smiled.

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"Yeah, because he kept spending it on stupid gambling!" Nico almost shouted.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

"That man is definitely a pig." Artemis shook her head. The best do have the worst luck.

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip." Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?" **

"Of course she was!" Poseidon exclaimed, using his hands to express himself. Percy snickered. Hades and Poseidon were definitely brothers.

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step-father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Bribery. Nice." Hermes grinned.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?" **

"Excuse me?" Aphrodite yelped. For a goddess of love, she looked downright hateful.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said. "And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back." "We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

Many people were already getting irritated with this guy.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"DO IT!" Ares yelled. For the first time ever, everyone agreed with the god of war.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

"Was that sarcastic?" Nico asked. Percy raised an eyebrow. "Yes, it wasn't sarcasm, I really thought Gabe's poker game was important." His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"Hey, you just thought like Gabe! You're in serious trouble, mister. I think you got two weeks before you turn to stone." Percy chuckled. Everyone who knew Gabe's fate laughed, however the one's that didn't looked at them in confusion.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"Like he'd be the one driving. He was twelve! Why doesn't the man give him a break!" Zoë grumbled. Percy and Leo smiled.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. **

"I- I- A- WHAT? I thought like lil' Jellyfish?" Zoë clutched her heart. "Lil' Jellyfish?" Poseidon asked. "Well, Jellyfish are slow, and also blunt. And for the lil', well, he used to be small." Zoë smiled. "Nice to know I have such a loving girlfriend."

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

"How did you do that?" Ares asked.

"I don't know." Percy frowned.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

"Doesn't the cold not affect you?" Hestia questioned.

**I loved the place.**

"Oh." Hestia frowned.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

"That was one of the things made fall for her." Poseidon smiled faintly.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jellybeans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"Yes, please." Hermes rolled his eyes.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"A streak?" Zoë questioned. Percy stuck out his tongue at her.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. **

Percy and Poseidon glared at Zeus, who gulped and paled.

**She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

**Mom fished a blue jellybean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"I would be proud, son." Poseidon murmured. "I know that now, dad." Percy told him.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

"Of course. You two have to scold me when I visit my kids, but if one of you do it…" Hades grumbled.

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

Poseidon looked down sadly. His son had misunderstood.

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?" **

"Percy!" Everyone yelled. "Hey! I regretted it, okay?

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"See?" Percy yelped.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

"A lot of things, lil' Jellyfish." Zoë let out a burst of hysterical laughter.

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**In fifth grade, a beautiful girl with ****long, silky black hair, coppery-like skin, a silver circlet around her head, a slightly upturned nose and black eyes like volcanic rocks. She carried a bow. She** **almost shot me when I stared at her.**

"Really, Percy? Even at fifth grade you stared at her?" Leo smirked. "That wasn't why!" Percy frowned.

**I only stared at her as she had a silver bow and a wolf by her side.**

"See?" Percy weakly protested. "Wait… what was she doing there?" Artemis asked.

"Oh, I had to assassinate a monster there.

**Unfortunately for me, a gigantic black dog tried to attack her. She was still trying to shoot me. I did what I had to do and tackled her down, the dog landing on empty air. **

"You saved my huntress?" Artemis questioned. Percy nodded.

**She smacked me, and she shot an arrow at the dog. The dog disintegrated, the girl, who introduced herself as Zoë Nightshade, ruffled my hair and ran off. I never had blushed as much as then.**

Most raised an eyebrow.

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"Why was his brother was stalking him?" Hades asked. "I guess I sent it to check up on him." Poseidon guessed.

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Just like Heracles." Hera acknowledged, and Percy glared at her.

"I am nothing like him." No one dared to ask.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"So you risked your life to spend time your mom." Athena questioned. Percy raised an eyebrow at her.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?" "Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"Yeah, where you would have been safe."

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp..."**

"You are my child, son. She was worried Chiron would make you stay." Poseidon told Percy.

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

"Was that Hades?" Zeus asked. "No, it was worse." Percy murmured.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

"I win, I win!" Zeus chanted. Percy wondered if he was even 10 years old.

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. **

"Yeah, Uncle P. Forgotten." Apollo rolled his eyes.

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

Everyone leaned forward in anticipation.

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be...**

"What? Tell us already." Aphrodite sniffed. "We already know what's it supposed to be!" Athena facepalmed.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!" I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

"Tell me!" Ares yelled. "I now understand how Aphrodite and Ares can love each other. They're too dumb to not." Percy whispered to Zoë.

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"Oh." Aphrodite muttered. Suddenly, another bright flash occurred. A sixteen year old beautiful girl stumbled out. She had long raven black hair, tanned skin, a slightly upturned nose and raven black eyes, wearing a 'HELLO MONSTERS Hows your day going.' T-shirt and jeans.

"Which year are you from and who are you?"

"I am Artemisia. I am from 2080. I am the Goddess of emotions, friendship and weapons. I am the daughter of Percy Jackson and Zoë Nightshade."

**Well, you like? REVIEW! OR I WON'T UPDATE.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Well, I'm back. WHERE THE HADES ARE THE REVIEWS! And the curse? If you want, there's a poll on my profile. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT put the vote in reviews. PUT IT IN THE POLL. OKAY? Or, I swear on the Styx, I WILL PERSONALLY SEND THE MINOTAUR AFTER YOU! Oh gods am I this angry?**

**Previously:**

_Suddenly, another bright flash occurred. A sixteen year old beautiful girl stumbled out. She had long raven black hair, tanned skin, a slightly upturned nose and sea green eyes, wearing a 'HELLO MONSTERS Hows your day going?' T- shirt and jeans._

"_Which year are you from and who are you?"_

"_I am Artemisia. I am from 2080. I am the Goddess of emotions, friendship and weapons. I am the daughter of Percy Jackson and Zoë Nightshade."_

**Now:**

"Wait, what? I have never recalled that anything of that sort happened between Zoë and I!" Percy protested.

Zoë rolled her eyes. "Lil' Jellyfish, she's from the future. What happens? Do we win the war?"

"Yeah, you become the goddess of Archery, peace, beauty and queen of demigods. Dad becomes the god of swordsmanship, emotions, beauty, time, fate and king of demigods. I don't get the beauty part for dad. You will not believe that almost all of the minor goddess's are swooning over Percy. If I recall, Aphrodite and most shockingly Athena are harboring crushes on you, and most of the Aphrodite cabin is preoccupied with stalking you. Apollo keeps hitting on mom, now he's in the hospital. If I recall, five broken ribs, a broken arm, several fractures on his skull, and both broke legs. Mom keeps a quiver of arrows and a bow always on her just in case Dad isn't there. Wait, where were we?" Artemisia spoke in the kind of way Rachel would talk, but faster. Way faster.

Zoë's mouth flopped open and closed. Aphrodite, Athena and Apollo started twitching nervously and started turning red. Percy had his eyebrows raised and his mouth open in a comical 'O'.

"We were reading the books of Kelp Head over here. You guys can talk during dinner, which should be after two more chapters. Never knew you could be so over-protective, Kelp Head." Thalia snickered.

"Wait, you mean Percy Jackson and the Olympians? I love those books! Mom gave the whole series to me to irritate dad. I mean, it's so good and it's fun to watch Dad's feelings of Mom develop. I mean, you two were so clueless!" Artemisia blurted out.

Percy's eyebrows started rising higher. "Can anyone track your talking? You certainly can out speak Rachel."

Artemisia laughed and said, "No."

"Anyways, sit down. We have to read this. And no, Artemisia, I don't think you will. We will only get a few garbled words." Nico tried not to smirk. Artemisia pouted. Percy glared at Nico, causing him to pale. Jason grabbed the book.

**MY MOTHER TEACHES ME BULLFIGHTING**

"What? Bullfighting?" Poseidon questioned.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. **

"Shag carpet pants? I can see who Artemisia resembles." Hermes chuckled.

"You haven't seen nothing if you haven't seen my lil' brother, Alexander or Daedalus." Artemisia huffed.

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

"Excuse me!" Grover protested.

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

"That sounds wrong." Leo snickered, and he found a certain hero glaring at him.

**Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

**"Watching me?"**

"That's so stalkerish." Artemisia shook her head. "Oh great, I'm already filling in for Alexander. Can the fates already send them here?" No answer.

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

**"Um ... what are you, exactly?"**

"He's a satyr." Dionysus rolled his eyes.

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

"Oh, he won't like that!" Dionysus chuckled, and Grover stomped his foot on the ground in outrage.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried. "What?" "I'm a goat from the waist down." "You just said it didn't matter." "Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you under hoof for such an insult!" "Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?" **

"Myths? Really, Dad?" Artemisia exclaimed, and Percy glanced at her.

"Didn't you already read this?" Percy demanded.

"Yeah, but I wanted to lord it over you without you freezing me in time and running away." Artemisia smirked.

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?" "So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!" "Of course." "Then why—"**

"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract." Chiron explained, and Percy and Jason laughed.

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, **

Chiron blinked in surprise.

**Like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

**"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

"Grover!" Zoë yelled, and Artemisia chuckled along with Percy and Jason.

**"Grover!" "Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

"Yes, please." Poseidon was shaking in his throne.

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

"Excuse me? Oh high Percy, who has highly prophetic dreams can't dream of something that lame?"

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hill sand PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

"Yeah, go Camp Half Blood!" Travis cheered.

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

"Old Ladies! Those were the fates!" Hades yelled, and Percy finally broke. He took out a silver box from his pocket and opened it. "I am getting sick of people thinking I am dying. You want to see why I'm not worried, here you go!" He drew out a volcano black string with a sea green string encircling it. "That isn't your string." Artemis stared pointedly at him. "No, my life depends on Zoë. But if you harm her…" Percy growled. He stored the string back into the box and put it back. "Also, the box only opens against will if I am killed, but it still requires my voice, thumb print, eye print, and password." Zoë's mouth dropped open and she shook her head. "Percy, I can't put the responsibility on you. Why do you stake so much for my life?"

"Because I love you." And he kissed her. Zoë put her arms around Percy and sighed.

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

"Was he about to say you?" Connor questioned.

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in me. "**

**"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you. "**

"That was confusing." Leo scratched his chin.

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

"Thank you!" Artemis exclaimed.

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

**"What was that?" I asked.**

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

"You think?" Ares grunted.

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

"ZEUS!" Poseidon got off his throne and started savaging Zeus. Finally, Hades and Athena managed to pull him off. Poseidon sat back down.

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

"Ouch." Percy rubbed his forehead, his curse already acting. **(A/N: If you don't know the curse now, seriously? Or maybe it's just me.)**

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow." "Percy!" my mom shouted. "I'm okay..."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning. That was the only explanation. **

Poseidon growled at Zeus.

**We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

Some snickers from the boys, some 'Awwws' from the girls.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to..." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

"Him. Of course. Why not?"

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

"No! Don't run, fight to the death!" Ares yelled.

**"What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too." Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean. "No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

"Such a loyal boy." Hera smiled at Percy, who just stared. Hera approving of Percy? A first.

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns...**

**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

"Sure, like a bull." Artemisia smirked.

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you—"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under-wear—I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

"Wow. Percy is very descriptive." Piper started turning green.

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

"Oh, it's real. Very real." Artemisia

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—" "Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you." "But he's the Min—" "Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

"Smart." Athena approved, and Poseidon stared at her in shock. _I never realized she was so beautiful._ He shook his head and stared at the floor. However, Aphrodite smiled evilly.

**The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

"Well, he-" Percy cut Zoë off by slapping a hand on her mouth.

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

"Very smart." Athena praised.

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

"Oops." Artemisia cackled.

**Oops.**

"Like father, like daughter!" Percy laughed and put an arm around Artemisia.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

**"Keeping me near you? But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

"Oh no." Poseidon started clutching his heart.

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

Poseidon burst into seawater. Percy stared at the puddle, and asked the rest, "Is he okay?"

"You do that all the time, but your seawater is actually tinted with silver." Artemisia smiled.

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

The puddle gurgled on the floor.

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

"Nice!" Hephaestus smiled.

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

The puddle started steaming.

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

The puddle evaporated.

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply... gone.**

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that. The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge. Time slowed down.**

"Action! I love it!" Ares sang.

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

"Wow. The punk actually did that." Ares stated, surprised.

**How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

Percy got a bit dizzy. He stood up and fell face first on the floor. He got up and sat down again.

**I was too dizzy to grip on. I was about to let go and get trampled, but suddenly I heard a voice that sounded a bit like Zoë's. **_**Do not loosen your grip or I will personally kill you. **_**I focused and grabbed on again.**

"What? How did that happen?" Artemis questioned. "We still don't know even now." Artemisia whistled.

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. **

"Not gonna happen, Perce." Hermes piped up. Percy, Zoë and Artemisia grinned; knowing what happened.

**The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!**

"O-Wha-you-a-" Hermes stuttered.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

"Yeah, you killed him with his own horn!" Leo exclaimed.

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

"Who knew Dad could be so observant." Artemisia chuckled.

**The monster was gone.**

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm-house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

"Such a loyal friend." Hera smiled faintly.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. **

"Like a princess?" Annabeth teased. "I was just describing you. I swear, these books will kill me." Percy whined.

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

"You kept freaking me out! No one explained what you meant by 'the one' meant!" Percy complained.

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"Well, that's the end of the chapter." Jason tossed the book onto the seat beside him. Annabeth picked it up.

"**I play pinochle with a horse."**

**Well, REVIEW! I UPDATED FAST! SO I WON'T UPDATE UNTIL I GET MORE REVIEWS! AND VISIT THE POOLL ON MY PROFILE.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Ummm… I edited Chap 1. So Zoë is a camper now. And they are in ancient Greece. Yes?**

**I PLAY PINOCHLE WITH A HORSE**

"Did I win? Did I?" Dionysus asked. Percy slowly shook his head.

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

"Bla-ha-ha! Barnyard animals!" Grover said in indignation.

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. **

"Ok… I see why you never wake up until after breakfast." Zoë muttered.

**I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

"Ha! Annabeth playing as a nurse!" Thalia snorted. Zoë felt something stir in her heart. Jealousy? She shook her head. Annabeth didn't like her boyfriend like that.

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

"What? Can someone tell us what is going on?" Zeus demanded. Demigods and co. shook their heads.

**I managed to croak, "What?"**

"I didn't know you were a frog, Percy." Hermes said. Everyone stared at him, noticing the look of seriousness on his face. Artemis facepalmed. "Boys." Artemis grumbled.

**She looked around, as if afraid someone would over-hear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

**"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."**

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

"Hmmm… Effective way of shutting him up. I should use that sometime." Zoë grinned evilly.

"Phhh… We all know your method of shutting him up, Zoë. Kiss him till he faints." Thalia snorted, and Zoë drew her knife. She chased her around the room.

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

"What, do you miss her?" Aphrodite questioned. She next found a bronze sword and a silver dagger planted in her throne.

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes— at least a dozen of them—on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

"A dozen? There are more, Seaweed brain." Annabeth shook her head disapprovingly.

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. **

"Ha ha! Scorpion! How ironic! And how are you going to survive that this time, by the way?" Artemisia questioned. "Wait, what about this time?" Zoë demanded.

"Dad! You haven't told them! How could you even keep secrets from us?" Artemisia yelled. Percy shifted uncomfortably. "What are you talking about?" Zoë said.

"Fine… I guess I should tell you guys… I got cursed!" Percy forced a smile. "WHAT!" Zoë strangled Percy. "Ugh- Z- Zoë! It wasn't my fault! I just killed him!" Percy choked. "Look, it was Phineas. He cursed me so that now, if I read these books, I get affected by whatever happens in the books. Plus a bit more pain." Zoë stood there in shock, and grabbed Percy's neck again. Annabeth just started reading again.

**My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

"Zoë! It hurts enough!" Percy begged, and Zoë released him.

**On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.**

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

Percy's knees weakened and slumped to the floor. Zoë got up and brought him back up, setting him on the sofa. She blushed at the position they were in. She was a bit too close to him.

**"Careful," a familiar voice said.**

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoebox. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

"Hey! That's my nickname! Quit copying me!" Thalia glared.

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And...**

"Sorry, son, but no such luck." Poseidon said on his throne, shocking everyone that he reformed. "She is still alive, you know." Percy said. Poseidon smiled, hope in his eyes. He hadn't met Sally but he liked her.

**"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

**Reverently, he placed the shoebox in my lap.**

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

"Of course not, Kelp head." Thalia snorted.

**"The Minotaur," I said. **

"You think he'd learn from his mom." Athena shook her head.

**"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea—" "That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull." Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?" "My mom. Is she really..." He looked down.**

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

"That is right, Perry." Dionysus sniffed, causing many to stare in shock. But he knew the pain. Hera had killed his mom.

**"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm—I'm the worst satyr in the world."**

Zeus looked as if to agree but Thalia glared at him.

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

**"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled. Thunder rolled across the clear sky. As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.**

**Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head. **

*Cue snorts of laughter. *

**But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even Minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

"Wow, he is truly loyal." Aphrodite blew her nose.

**I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe? **

"Not on my life." Poseidon exclaimed angrily.

**No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. **

"I like how you think, kid." Ares nodded. Percy gaped at him.

**I'd do something.**

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid—poor goat, satyr, whatever—looked as if he expected to be hit. I said, "It wasn't your fault." "Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you." "Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

**"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was." "But why..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming. "Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

**I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies—my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. **

"That's what it tasted like?" Apollo asked in disbelief, and Percy nodded.  
"Yeah, my moms cookies are great. But they kinda taste different now…" Percy blushed.

"What do you mean, different?" Artemis asked. Percy blushed even deeper, and Zoë also blushed. Which did not go unnoticed by Aphrodite.

"Oooh, I know! Zoë's lips, right!" Aphrodite squealed. Percy buried his face into Zoë's shoulder in embarrassment. Zoë twitched a bit, confirming it.

**Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

**"Was it good?" Grover asked.**

"Of course it did, it's gods food, Grover." Chiron reprimanded.

**I nodded.**

**"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

**"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

Zeus's eyes glinted. Grover, sensing the emotion, shrank into the sofa even more.

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."**

**"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Home-made."**

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

**"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

"That's good, right?" Jason questioned. Percy held a hand up.

**"That's good," he said. **

"There's your answer!" Percy said.

**"That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

"Possessive, much?" Zoë questioned. Percy smirked, and whispered, "Only with you." Zoë blushed furiously.

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture—an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena—except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

"That was what you were like, Nico! Except more weird." Percy chuckled.

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.**

Percy paled. He had a 50% chance of being turned into a dolphin now.

**The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels— what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. **

"YOU COMPARED ME TO A CHERUB?" Dionysus yelled. Percy transformed into water, surprising everyone, but we must remember he got a little time to train. The puddle was scooped up into Zoë's hands and mercilessly dropped on the floor. Percy groaned and appeared. "Ouch." He moaned.

**That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step-father.**

Dionysus looked downright murderous.

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron..."**

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

**"Mr. Brunner!" I cried. The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.**

Athena gasped in outrage.

**"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

"You taught my son to play with Dionysus? He's dead." Poseidon groaned, and Percy yelled out, "I'm here, you know!"

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

Storms clouded overhead.

**"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hit-ting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

"Your not a Satyr. But was that an insult?" Grover neighed. Percy gulped and shook his head.

**"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."**

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. **

"Ruined? What do you mean by that?" Athena glared.

**They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

Everyone stared into Annabeth's eyes and found that Percy was right.

**She glanced at the Minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a Minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that.**

"You what?" Annabeth choked. Percy held his hands up and shrugged.

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

Aphrodite and Leo snickered. They glared at each other, before blushing and looking away. **(A/N: I just have to pick weird pairings. First Nico/Hestia, now Aphrodite/Leo? Facepalm.)**

**"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"**

"Not Mr. Bru-" Zoë started to rant, before Percy cut her off with a kiss. *Cue 'Awwws' from audience *

**"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex—Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."**

**"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"**

"Are you crazy?" Dionysus asked. "Oh sure, coming from the guy who supports Dad, that's rich." Artemisia snorted.

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

**"Oh. Right. Sorry."**

"Yeah, I was." Percy confessed.

**"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

"House call?" Poseidon asked.

**"House call?"**

Many smiled at the similarities.

**"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."**

"Did you do that Chiron, or did Percy give the teacher a nervous breakdown?" Zoë questioned. Chiron shrugged.

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

"Really?" Thalia asked.

**"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

**"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

"You let poor innocent Satyrs play that game? There better not be any betting." Athena glared. Percy snorted loudly along with Zoë. "Innocent?" Percy grumbled. Grover glared at Percy, but knowing what had happened, he decided to let it pass.

**"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

"Excuse me?" Dionysus exclaimed.

**"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

**"I'm afraid not," I said.**

**"I'm afraid not, sir," he said.**

**"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

**"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules."**

"Dionysus!" Poseidon grumbled. Dionysus paled and shuddered.

**"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.**

**"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun—Chiron—why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"**

Dionysus snorted. "I would have asked the same question."

**Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."**

Dionysus blinked in surprise, earning a few chuckles.

**The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.**

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer.**

"Sadly, you never got the correct answer. Like who was Achilles mum. Or why Kronos ate-" That was Percy diving towards Chiron and tackling him to the ground. "Ha! Percy-1, Chiron-0!" Zoë grabbed him and pushed him back onto the sofa.

**"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'**

**"She said..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

**"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?" **

"Dionysus! How heartless can you get!" Poseidon and Hera bellowed.

**"What?" I asked. He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did. "I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient." "Orientation film?" I asked.**

"Yeah, it was cool." Nico smiled. Percy whined, "How come I didn't get to watch that?"

**"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know"—he pointed to the horn in the shoe box—"that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods—the forces you call the Greek gods—are very much alive."**

"And are kicking'!" Apollo cheered.

**I stared at the others around the table.**

**I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

"It's okay Perce. We all went through that." Nico smirked.

**"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?" **

"Diet coke cans? Really?" Leo asked. Grover huffed in annoyance.

**"Eh? Oh, all right." Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully. "Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as God."**

**"Well, now," Chiron said. "God—capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

**"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about—"**

**"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

"SMALLER?" Zeus yelled.

Chiron chuckled nervously and Percy rolled his eyes.

**"Smaller?"**

**"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

**"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."**

"HEY! Watch it with the names!" Apollo quipped.

**And there it was again—distant thunder on a cloud-less day.**

**"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

**"But they're stories," I said. "They're—myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

"Myths? I feel so insulted!" Hermes glared at Percy.

Percy started glowing, and he disappeared while another similar being took his place. The man was just like Percy, accept taller, his hair was silver and he had a bandage around his head, covering his right eye.

He bowed, and straightened up, a mischievous look in his eyes- I mean, eye.

"Percy Jackson, god of swordsmanship, emotions, beauty, time, fate and king of demigods, at your service."

Aphrodite started drooling. He bowed and sat with Zoë.

Annabeth started reading.

**"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"—I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody—**

"Really? Perseus Jackson." Thalia said. Percy flinched. "Perseus Jackson." Percy flinched. "Pe-"

Percy shouted, "ALRIGHT!"

"**What will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals—they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come soooo far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."**

"I am a myth!" Percy clutched his heart. Artemisia punched his arm.

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

**"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

"But we fade, don't we. Some day, we will all fade." A tear leaked out of Percy's eye, and he wiped it up, no one saw it. Pan, Triton, Nemesis, all of the immortals that faded came to his mind.

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

"You surprised me. You were the first who knew what I was talking about!" Chiron exclaimed.

**"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

**"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that some-day people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"**

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

"Up-up-up!" Percy said, holding his hand up when many people started to open their mouth.

**"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

"How dare you!" Poseidon blasted Dionysus with seawater. Percy chuckled.

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."**

**"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe.'"**

"It was your fault! Chasing a nymph and stuff! Don't be so evil." Percy disappeared and appeared next to Dionysus, slapping him on the arm, and appearing on the sofa.

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

"Dionysus!" Zeus grumbled.

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up. "Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions." Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise. "Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!" More thunder.**

"I don't get it. How come when I insult Zeus, it rumbles sometimes? As a god, shouldn't he grumble at everything?" Percy asked. Zoë shrugged.

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

**"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

**"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time—well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away—the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."**

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

"HEY!" Dionysus yelled.

"Oh, put a sock in it. In fact…" Percy materialized a sock in Dionysus mouth. He spat it out.

**"And…" I stammered, "Your father is..."**

**"Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."**

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

**"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine." Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

**"Y-yes, Mr. D." "Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?" "You're a god." "Yes, child." "A god. You."**

"Is that so hard to believe?" Dionysus huffed.

"Yes." Nearly all the demigods said.

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a straitjacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

"Yeah. Remember, Artemisia?" Percy said sternly. Artemisia shuddered.

**"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

**"No. No, sir."**

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

"I WON!" Dionysus shouted in glee.

"Nope!" Percy said, popping the 'p'

**"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

"No!" Dionysus sobbed.

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. **

"Six hundred and nine times." He smiled.

**He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

**"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

Thalia, Nico, Percy and Annabeth growled at Dionysus. He paled.

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir." Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners." He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably. "Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

**"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

"Of course." Athena rolled her eyes, and suddenly her arm jerked up, and she jumped off her throne. She started banging her head on the throne. "What is happening?" Poseidon asked, sniggering. "80% of a human's body is made out of water. I control water. _Quippe_?" Athena stared at Percy in shock.

**"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

"Yeah; I feel a Haiku coming on!" Apollo said, but Percy interrupted him.

_Sun gods are stupid,_

_The new gods are so awesome,_

_I am very cool._

Artemis and Apollo stared at him in shock. Percy grinned. "That was a Haiku worthy of Apollo."

Everyone cracked up.

**"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like...in America?" "Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West." "The what?"**

**"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know—or as I hope you know, since you passed my course—the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps—Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on—but the same forces, the same gods."**

**"And then they died."**

Hermes went up to Artemis and poked her. Artemis slapped him and exclaimed, "What are you doing?"

"Checking to see if we're alive. Check." Hermes said with a serious face, and many people started sniggering.

**"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not—and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either—America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

**It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club.**

"Darn right I am!" Percy said, high-fiving Artemisia.

**"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"**

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

"Excuse me!" Chiron huffed.

**"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, **

"What?" Leo blinked. Chiron was huffing.

**But as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.**

**I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

"Which reminds me, did Hephaestus make that?" Jason asked, and Chiron nodded.

**"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

"Well, should we go for dinner?" Hestia asked, and Apollo and Hermes ran out the door screaming 'FOOD!'

Percy shook his head. "They act like Grover." They all filed out of the room.

**Okay, I worked on this. NOW REVIEW or NO MORE STORY! MUA HA HA HA! Uhhh, I mean, have a nice day!**


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